A workplace creator named Avreen has sparked a conversation about professional boundaries after arguing that consistently working at maximum capacity can cause an employee’s occasional best performance to become an everyday expectation.
Her advice has resonated with social-media users who have experienced rising workloads, after-hours messages and pressure to maintain unusually high levels of productivity.
Avreen Says Constant Extra Effort Can Raise Expectations
In an Instagram video, Avreen urged corporate employees to think carefully about how they establish expectations around their work.
She clarified that her message was not about being careless or avoiding responsibilities. Instead, she argued that employees should avoid turning exceptional effort into their normal working pattern.
“Stop giving 100% at the office. And no, I’m not telling you to be lazy. You think that if you finish a 6-hour task in 3 hours, you’ll look very efficient. That’s not the case at all,” she said.
According to Avreen, completing a task significantly faster than expected can eventually influence how others estimate the time required for similar work.
“From tomorrow, that work will permanently become a 3-hour job for you,” she said.
She made a similar point about after-hours availability. Responding to work messages late at night may initially be viewed as going the extra mile, she suggested, but repeated availability can eventually become something colleagues or managers expect.
“You reply on Teams once at 10 pm: bravo, according to them, you are now available every night at 10 PM,” Avreen said.
She then summed up her argument with a phrase that became the central point of the video: “Your best becomes your baseline.”
Why She Recommends Keeping Some Energy in Reserve
Avreen suggested that employees should avoid operating at their maximum capacity every single day.
“So, give only 80% at work and save that 20% for the days when your energy is genuinely low, something is going on in your personal life, or there’s an actual emergency at the office,” she said.
The “80%” figure appears to be a way of illustrating her broader point rather than a universal productivity formula.
Her argument is essentially about sustainable performance. An employee may occasionally be able to work faster, stay late or take on additional responsibilities. But if that level of effort becomes routine, it can become difficult to step back when circumstances change.
For example, someone who regularly answers messages outside working hours may unintentionally establish an expectation of constant availability. Similarly, consistently completing assignments far ahead of deadlines could influence future assumptions about how quickly comparable tasks can be completed.
The Difference Between High Performance and Unsustainable Expectations
Being highly productive is not necessarily a problem. In many workplaces, taking initiative, meeting deadlines early and helping colleagues can contribute to career growth and professional recognition.
The concern raised by Avreen is different: what happens when exceptional performance becomes the expected minimum?
An employee who occasionally works late because of an urgent project is not necessarily setting an unhealthy precedent. The issue can arise when overtime and constant availability become routine without a corresponding adjustment in workload, compensation, staffing or deadlines.
Setting boundaries can therefore involve relatively simple practices, such as communicating realistic deadlines, protecting non-working hours when possible and distinguishing genuine emergencies from routine requests.
Social-Media Users Relate to the Advice
Avreen’s video attracted comments from users who said they could relate to her observations about workplace expectations.
“Setting boundaries is so important,” one person wrote.
Another commented, “This is actually so true,” while a third user described the message as “Corporate life explained perfectly.”
Someone else summarised the lesson as: “Work smart, not endlessly.”
Other commenters shared experiences from their own workplaces. One person wrote, “Will take this advice.”
Another recalled working long hours before a manager ultimately treated the additional effort as ordinary work, writing: “Exactly…. my manager said whatever you are doing is just BAU. Even the 10+ hrs work etcetc. Since then m off after my aligned hours.”
The comments suggest that the conversation around Avreen’s video extends beyond productivity itself to questions about workload, boundaries and how workplace expectations are established.
What Employees Can Take From the Debate
Avreen’s message does not mean employees should deliberately reduce the quality of their work or refuse reasonable responsibilities.
Instead, her argument is about distinguishing sustainable performance from constant overextension.
Employees can still aim for high-quality work while being realistic about the amount of time and energy required to maintain that performance. Occasional extra effort may be necessary, particularly during deadlines or emergencies, but making that level of effort permanent can make it harder to manage periods when personal circumstances or workload change.
Ultimately, the discussion raises a useful workplace question: Is an employee being rewarded for exceptional performance, or is exceptional performance quietly becoming the new minimum?
That distinction can determine whether working harder actually improves a person’s professional life—or simply creates a higher baseline that they are expected to maintain indefinitely.
